Monster Hunter Weed (PvZH)
Monster Hunter Weed is an event plant card and a member of the Guardian class. It costs 4 Sun and has 3/5, and has an Activatable ability to add a Silverleaf Arrow to the plant player's hand. This card was created for Gking's Halloween contest! Card Information * Class: Guardian * Tribe: Weed Plant * Traits: None * Abilities: When played: Do 4 damage to a Monster. Activate: Gain a Silverleaf Arrow. * Rarity: Event Additional Information Activate is a keyword introduced here. A fighter with Activate can be tapped to activate its ability once per turn, any time during a turn as long as it is during a time where the controlling player can play cards (e.g. this plant's ability can be activated any time during the Plants Play stage of a turn, but not anytime else). Silverleaf Arrow is a 2-cost token Trick card that reads: Do 3 damage to a Monster or a Zombie with 4 or more. This does 1 more damage if you have a Monster Hunter Weed. Strategies With This card is strong in that it puts a solid and cost-effective body on the board, and may help take down a Monster if it's on the field, and is guaranteed to give you at least one Silverleaf Arrow, which functions like a mini-Shamrocket. Fitting with the theme of hunting and killing monster Zombies, this card is a useful tech card against some dangerous Monster cards as well as a good one to keep large Zombies under control. It's recommended to play it as soon as you can even if there is no Monster on the board to deal 4 damage to, since the solid statline and the free Arrow will be very advantageous. Since it is a Guardian, you will most likely have access to defensive cards to help protect this plant while getting more Silverleaf Arrows. Playing this card also increases the amount of pressure on the Zombie Hero because playing high strength Zombies or Monsters leaves them susceptible to taking a big hit from an empowered Silverleaf Arrow. Part of this card's power also lies in its ability to oppress enemy plays: by making certain cards much less appetising for the zombie player to play, you are essentially temporarily removing the cards from his hand since they'll just sit in his/her hand. Dangerous or high-value Monster targets that would net a large swing in your favour if you hit them with the Silverleaf Arrow and especially the When played effect include: * Ancient Vimpire and Vimpire (when boosted) * Cursed Gargolith * Gas Giant * Frankentuar * Deep Sea Gargantuar * Cryo-Yeti Wall-Knight can follow up with Monster Hunter Weed after playing Haunted Pumpking. Monster Hunter Weed is less powerful if there are no Monsters to hit, but with Haunted Pumpking putting one in the Zombie Hero's hand, this can help snip it off. This card, unlike many other lower-cost cards, scales decently into the late game since it is able to tackle threats much larger than itself with minimal Sun investment. Even without support, this card is a solid card to help counter decks running multiple buffs or large Zombies. While this card is a overall strong one to run, it is somewhat of a meta call since it is much less valuable against a lot of other deckstyles, particularly those that focus on numerous zombies or small zombies that do not exceed the 4 threshold. Against This card is difficult to counter given that some of its value comes immediately when it's played and its 3/5 statline make it resistant to both strength-related instant removal tricks and direct damage. However this card will act as a roadblock to some of your future plays (and allow the Plant player to efficiently knock away at your board) so playing around in it (in scenarios when immediate removal is not possible) is critical. Hold back your buff cards and large zombies since Silverleaf Arrows will allow the Plant player to make sun profits by shooting them down. This card is not absolutely necessary to tech against given that it is itself a tech card, designed partly to prevent Monster decks or individually powerful high health or Monster zombies from running rampant. However, it is important to play around its high power level by not slamming too many Monsters into your deck or focusing too heavily on big zombies or buffs. Developer's Insights This card is designed partly as a tech card, a card whose role more than anything else is to act as a counter to certain other cards or strategies to keep them in check (an example of a tech card in another game is Hungry Crab, a 1 mana 1/2 minion that when played destroyed a Murloc minion if there was one on the board and gained +2/2 if it did. Given that it granted great value and power but only against a specific type of card, this card was designed as an indirect nerf to Murloc decks.). Currently in the game, there are only four cards specifically developed to counter high-strength opponents: Shamrocket, Doom-Shroom, Rocket Science and Cut Down To Size. This was slightly restrictive and tech cards held a very contentious place in the meta: many decks ran one or two (if they could) to deal with a high-strength minion they normally couldn't answer, but in many other scenarios they were rather clunky or weak without that specific purpose in mind. My intention with designing this card is to act as a very strong counter to high-strength Zombies (and Monsters, to indirectly weaken certain specific cards and for the Halloween flavour), while still being a strong value play to help Guardians maintain control over the fight. As mentioned in the trivia section, this card was even stronger, previously with one more health and the Silverleaf Arrows more cost-effective. Given that it is a tech card, it was appropriately nerfed to keep its normal power level in check while keeping it strong against the things it was designed to counter. Trivia * This card originally was 3/6 and the Silverleaf Arrows were 3-cost cards that cost 1 less in the presence of Monster Hunter Weed. * This card was made by N00bslayer2016 for Gking's Halloween Contest! * This card is inspired by the Monster Hunter solo adventures in Hearthstone, and visually inspired by Silvernail the bounty hunter hero in Vainglory. Thematically, this card is a weed who, not so much in Halloween spirit, decides to hunt down monsters instead of joining in the festivities dressed as one. This is references in its flavour text. Category:Pumpking's Curse Contest